ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 10) — Ashton Winger’s first week with his new Rocket Chassis XR2 provided little reason to believe its first victory was right around the corner.
Saturday at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway, Winger debuted the car only to be disqualified for weighing light at the scales. His night included hitting the wall hard enough to “knock the front end over.”
After repairing the damage, the Hampton, Ga., driver brought the car to Eldora Speedway for Sunday’s Baltes Classic, but he couldn’t get it to respond as desired and scratched before taking a competitive lap. His father, Gary, said they eventually “PONQ’ed.”
“Pissed off and quit,” the elder Winger explained before Thursday’s World 100 opener.
Even Thursday began ominously. A battery problem kept Winger from participating in the initial hot-lap session, leaving the 26-year-old and his father wondering whether it was time to unload their 4-year-old XR1 — the tried-and-true car that has carried Winger to most of his 10 victories and a 78-point lead in the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series standings this season.
The Wingers believed their new XR2 would eventually come around. They just didn’t expect its fortunes to turn so dramatically. A few favorable breaks and some heavy-footed yet crafty driving transformed a miserable stretch into the biggest victory of Winger’s career.
Winger overtook early leader Brian Shirley in traffic on the 12th lap, then withstood challenges from Devin Moran and Brandon Sheppard to capture Thursday’s 25-lap World 100 preliminary feature. The $12,000 victory was his first of any kind at Eldora.
“I’m kind of in disbelief,” Winger said. “I felt like I was fast and good enough to be competitive. I don’t want to say I didn’t feel like I was good enough to win, but I didn’t see myself getting into that position, if that makes sense. It all worked out, and I’m really thankful for it. I have a lot of awesome people to thank and definitely have way more than I deserve.”
From a three-hour rain delay to narrowly landing within the top-18 cutoff for Eldora’s six-car heat-race invert, everything came together for Winger to reverse his fortunes. The extra time before the second round of hot laps at nearly 11 p.m. allowed the Wingers to thoroughly inspect the problem-plagued car.
Then Winger qualified 16th in his group, putting him on the front row of his heat and ultimately positioning him for the 25-lap victory.
“We definitely had a lot of things go our way tonight, and I’m not blind to that fact,” Winger said. “Man, it’s awesome. It’s really cool. The invert definitely helped, and a couple of other things went our way. I don’t think I necessarily executed some of those restarts like I needed to, but things worked out to where I was able to get where I needed to.
“Once I got into the open, I felt pretty comfortable. But everybody knows the restarts here are so chaotic.”
Winger flourished amid fast, frenetic conditions — a setting that suited a driver whose victories tend to come with a splash of drama.
“I definitely find myself in those situations,” Winger said. “I feel like most of my wins are exciting. I tell everybody I love boring races, but I’m not in the middle of many of them.
“If you’re going to be good at anything — I don’t want to go as far as saying I’m clutch because I’ve definitely done some things that weren’t very smart — but it feels good to be put in situations like that and be able to perform, execute and put ourselves in position to be successful.”
Winger’s Eldora breakthrough followed his encouraging performance in June’s Dream, when he climbed from 19th to eighth in the 100-lap feature. That result didn’t entirely reflect how competitive Winger believed he was before losing power steering shortly after halfway.
“Everybody uses their shoulda, coulda, wouldas, but at the Dream, I had just driven by Max — and I know he ended up second — with around 30 or 40 laps to go when I lost power steering,” Winger said of eventual runner-up Max Blair. “I faded late because of these dang pool-noodle arms.”
Winger doesn’t claim he would have defeated Dream winner Bobby Pierce, but he left the 100-lapper believing an Eldora podium was within his reach.
“I really felt like we were good enough to run on the podium at the Dream,” Winger said. “I’m not going to be that guy who says I would’ve beaten Bobby. Hudson (O’Neal) and (Brandon) Sheppard had some bad luck. But after the Dream this year, I thought, ‘I think we’re to the point now where we can fine-tune things and get better.’ ”
That older car’s proven success made the XR2’s difficult debut particularly frustrating. Winger admitted he and his father scrambled so much to assemble the new car before Fairbury that they never truly buttoned it up.
“It was just me and my dad, and we were thrashing to get this car together,” Winger said. “We didn’t even scale it, so that’s obviously why we were light. I think this week, even though we were gone, was the first time we actually went through everything instead of just throwing it together.
“Rocket has a great car. Listen, that car I’ve got in the front of the trailer is 4 years old. It’s bent every which way, and it’s fast as hell.”
Winger is so confident in the weathered XR1 that he has repeatedly encouraged some of his competitors to give it a whirl.
“I keep telling Tyler Erb, ‘Dude, you’ve got to drive this thing once,’ ” Winger said. “‘I know it looks like it’s been run through 10 miles of rust. The clip has been knocked off it, and the right-side framerail has been knocked off it, but I’m telling you, if you drive this thing, you’ll say, “Damn, this thing is pretty good.’ ”
The Wingers finally have some extra helping hands this week, too, in Blade Kearns and Tennessee racer Kaede Loudy, who spent part of the summer crewing for Viper-Big Frog Motorsports and Daulton Wilson.
Such assistance has been especially valuable for a team that has operated primarily with Winger and his father for the last several months.
“Usually, it’s just me and my dad,” Winger said. “Except for when we were putting this car together, my dad usually comes and helps at night. He does the (Integra Racing) shock deal, but it’s really just me most of the time. It’s definitely nice to have some help, and it’s nice to have my dad when he’s available.”
Winger has also benefited throughout his career from veteran racers who watched him grow from a self-described rambunctious child into one of their competitors. He credits his father, brothers Shane and Rusty Clanton, brothers Shane and Dale McDowell and Clint Smith among those who helped shape him.
“It’s funny. I feel like all these guys I race around now saw me running around and being a little s--- in the pit area,” Winger said. “Now I’m just the 26-year-old s---.”
The self-deprecating description carries another layer for Winger, whose fiery personality and gung-ho driving style have garnered a mixed reputation over the years — one that is steadily solidifying into that of a respected competitor.
He found stability with car owner Jeff Mathews, whom he joined late in 2022 following a turbulent season marked by multiple run-ins with veteran drivers and abbreviated tenures with Team 22 Inc. and Big Frog Motorsports.
Now nearing the end of their fourth season together, Winger and Mathews have developed one of the sport’s most formidable regional programs. With 10 victories in 32 starts — a 31.3 percent win rate — Winger is one of three World 100 entrants to have won at least 30 percent of his races in 2026, joining Bobby Pierce (36 percent, 27 of 75) and Gregg Satterlee (33.3 percent, 11 of 33).
“I tell everybody it’s really weird now that I’m older and have a little different demeanor than I did when I was 18,” said Winger, who had one of his victories in a guest appearance in James Gilmore’s Limited Late Model. “It’s crazy to recognize the things I picked up without even realizing it. When I went on the road and was wiping Mike Marlar’s and Clanton’s cars down, I was listening to them talk and absorbing things without knowing it. I definitely don’t take any of that for granted.”
Nor did he take Thursday’s maiden Eldora victory for granted.
“It all worked out tonight,” Winger said. “The car is good, and life is good right now. Winning fixes everything. Nine-year-old me would be pumped right now.”